Mountain Electric Cooperative Update- Hurricane Helene Restoration Efforts -October 20, 2024

Status for Mtn City service area: 

We currently have an estimated 145 members out of power. The number of outages will continue to slowly decrease due to building new lines and replacing broke poles that were damaged by the storm.

General Area Crews Working in Mountain City district area: 421/Golf course area, Walnut mountain/ Heartwood/Heaton Branch/Poga areas, Lower Laurel area, Fall Branch area the service crews will be in different locations of the county working to restore power to homes that have damage to their services.

General Area Tree Crew Working: Tree service crews are working alongside the line crews as well as Heaton Branch and Walnut Mtn area.

Status of Newland and Roan Mtn:

We currently have 525 members out of power in Newland. The outage restoration numbers are slowly decreasing due to each outage taking 3 hours or more to repair, to only get 1-2 members back on. It is a slow process, where most of the damage is severe and rough terrain.

The Roan Mountain system is mostly restored. If you still do not have power, and you have not reported it, please call the Roan Mountain office at 423-772-3521.

We still have multiple service crews working in all areas on secondary lines and meter poles.

General area crews are working in Newland district

4 crews are still on Old Beech Mtn working along with excavators. Line crews are also on Elk River Falls Rd, Jonas Ridge, Roseboro, and Banner Elk areas.

The plan for tomorrow is to begin work in the Old Toe River area with excavators and 3 line crews. This section was completely destroyed and will take a long time to rebuild.

Service crews are still working diligently on service orders to individual outages, such as broke meter poles and downed power lines that need to be put back up. We understand your frustration of not having power when all your neighbors do, but we are working as quickly as possible to restore these damaged services.

At this point in the restoration efforts, the biggest challenges we are facing are great, but we are working towards the solutions to restore all power to everyone. Not only do we have individual services with broken poles etc. that are taking hours to repair; we are also having to rebuild entire power line structures that serve several communities. When we say that the structures have been completely destroyed, we mean there are no power poles left to reattach lines to and in some instances not even recognizing where the poles used to be.

General area crews are working in Roan Mtn district—Roan Mtn service crews are working on secondary and service work now. If you still do not have power and you did not call to report it yesterday, please call the Roan Mountain office at 423-772-3521.

If you have a medical need (oxygen, dialysis or other medical conditions), please find a local emergency shelter. Electricity and essential needs are being supplied at these shelters.

Please call your local office first and see if they can assist you before leaving me a message. I know there are several members without electricity still and can assure you all the MEC crews and contractors are working. These individuals have worked 24 days straight. Crews are working as quickly as possible and want your power restored also.

I also want to ask that you please remember a lot of employees have damage to their own homes they have not been able to attend to because they are working hard for you, our members. Crews are working as quickly as possible and want your power restored also.

Rodney Metcalf, General Manager

Mountain Electric Cooperative

C: 423.727.1810

Fax: 423.727.1822

[email protected]